Minimally invasive surgeries performed by robotic surgical systems are known and commonly used in remote or in other environments where it is advantageous for a human not to perform surgery. One example of such a telerobotic surgical system is the minimally invasive robotic surgery system described in commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,155,315. The da Vinci® Surgical Systems manufactured by Intuitive Surgical, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. are illustrative implementations of minimally invasive robotic surgical systems (e.g., teleoperated; telesurgical).
A common form of minimally invasive surgery is endoscopy. Endoscopic surgical instruments in minimally invasive medical techniques generally include an endoscope for viewing the surgical field, and working tools that include end effectors. Typical surgical end effectors include clamps, graspers, scissors, staplers, or needle holders, as examples. The working tools are similar to those used in conventional (open) surgery, except that the end effector of each tool is supported on the end of, for example, an approximately 12-inch-long extension tube.
To manipulate end effectors, a human operator, typically a surgeon, manipulates or otherwise commands a locally-provided master manipulator. Commands from the master manipulator are translated as appropriate and sent to a remotely-deployed slave manipulator. The slave manipulator then manipulates the end effectors according to the operator's commands.
Force feedback may be included in minimally invasive robotic surgical systems. To provide such feedback, the remote slave manipulators typically provide force information to the master manipulator, and that force information is utilized to provide force feedback to the surgeon so that the surgeon is given the perception of feeling forces acting on a slave manipulator. In some force feedback implementations, haptic feedback may provide an artificial feel to the surgeon of tissue reactive forces on a working tool and its end effector.
Often, the master controls, which are typically located at a surgeon console, will include a clutch or other device for releasing one of the work tools at the patient site. This feature may be used, for example, in a system where there are more than two working tools. In such a system, the surgeon may release control of one working tool by one master and establish control over another working tool with that master.
The surgeon typically views an image of only the distal ends of the working tools that are within the endoscope's field of view. The surgeon cannot see portions of a tool, or an entire tool, that is outside the field of view. Accordingly, the surgeon cannot see if two or more tools are interfering with each other outside the field of view. Further, since the endoscope may be manipulated to be at various positions and orientations with reference to a surgical site and to the surgeon's body frame of reference, the surgeon may become confused about the general location of the tools. Consequently, the surgeon may not understand how to best move the master manipulators to avoid an inter-tool interference or to reorient one or more tools with reference to the surgical site.